The 1990s witnessed a rapid proliferation of computer technology into homes and businesses. During this time, computers, fueled by growth of the much-heralded Internet, advanced from facilitating tasks, such as word processing and bookkeeping, to become everyday communications tools, fast approaching the commonness of telephones and televisions. As a result, virtually every sector of public, private, and commercial life has been affected in some way by the power and reach of today's computer technology.
The financial-services industry, for example, has recently seen not only the emergence of Internet-based trading platforms that allow online trading of stocks, bonds, and commodities, but also the emergence of online listing centers that allow brokers to match sellers with buyers of securities based on listed “indications of interest” or IOIs. A seminal example of such an online center is the AutEx™ service from Thomson Financial of New York, N.Y. This service provides a secure and convenient means for investment firms and large-block traders to broadcast their desires, or interests, in purchasing or selling particular stock or other security instruments to a group of securities traders (buyside traders.) Traders viewing these indications in an online list can then respond by communicating with contacts at these investment firms or to begin negotiations and ultimately complete the transactions.
However, the present inventors have recognized that systems, such as the AutEx system, while successful, are limited in at least two ways.
First, online listing systems are limited in the types of IOIs that they provide. For example, the AutEx system provides three types of IOIs, a general IOI which identifies a stock and a general number of shares, such as large, medium or small; a super IOI which identifies a stock and a specific number of shares, but no price; and a natural IOI which identifies a stock, a specific number of shares, and a price. In all cases, traders responding to listed IOIs have no indication of how willing the issuer of the IOI is to actually complete a trade. As such, traders are at risk of wasting time responding to IOIs that may not yield actual transactions.
Second, online listing systems are limited in the ways they allow IOI viewers to leverage the collective IOIs of multiple entities for a given stock. For example, within the AutEx system, an IOI viewer wishing to privately contact several parties regarding their respective IOIs for a particular stock would need to expend considerable time initiating separate communications to each party or separately reviewing and judging responses from each party, typically via phone, fax, email, or instant messaging.
Accordingly, the present inventors have recognized a need for better ways of using IOIs to facilitate trading.